Editing Help:Articles

It is the goal of the SABR Encyclopedia to be the first stop on the Internet to learn more about any topic related to baseball. The '''scope of Encyclopedia articles''', therefore, includes any topic relevant to baseball, both present and historical, and both on and off the field.

== Scope and length of articles ==

The SABR Encyclopedia is, as its name suggests, an [[Wikipedia:Encyclopedia]].  That is, it organizes and presents ''general knowledge'' about baseball.  This has implications for the breadth of topics covered in the Encyclopedia, as well as the depth of coverage of a particular topic.

The editorial guidelines for the SABR Encyclopedia aim for breadth over depth.  There is no lack of information in the world about baseball, but there is a lack of a repository to tie those sources together. The SABR Encyclopedia aims to fill that role.  Therefore, for instance, any person who is known to have played, managed, or umpired a game in a professional league should have an article in the Encyclopedia. 

A SABR Encyclopedia article should provide the essential information on a topic. This implies that most articles will not be exceptionally long or detailed.  For instance, for an article on a person, the article should summarize who the person was, their principal roles, achievements, and impact within baseball, and an outline of their life outside of baseball. The Encyclopedia is not a suitable place for articles which go into great depth on a topic.  Articles with deeper content are more appropriately prepared and published in a SABR journal, SABR committee newsletter or website, or other suitable secondary outlet.  For instance, long articles on people should probably be published in the [http://bioproj.sabr.org SABR Baseball Biography Project].

There is no one-size-fits-all guideline on whether an article is too long or deep for the Encyclopedia.  As a rule of thumb, once an article exceeds 750 words, there is a chance the article may be better suited for publication elsewhere, and articles of more than 1500 words are likely strong candidates for development into such a publication.  Articles which grow beyond the typical scope of an Encyclopedia article may be tagged with the template {{[[Template:cleanup-long-article]]}}.  These articles appear in the category [[:Category:Articles beyond encyclopedic depth|Articles beyond encyclopedic depth]].

If you find yourself writing 1500 or more words on a subject, there are several advantages to considering publication of a fuller article in the Baseball Biography Project, ''Baseball Research Journal'', or a SABR committee newsletter or website.  The SABR Encyclopedia is not a good place to write about original research.  The Encyclopedia is community-edited, which means that what you write can, and will, be rewritten and modified by others in the future.  Therefore, it is not a good platform for recording and disseminating research in a way that will be preserved over time.  It is better to publish original work in one of the other venues listed, and then make reference to it in the Encyclopedia.